Readers offer their best tips for figuring out which earphone goes in which ear, fixing finicky DSLR cameras, and performing advanced searches in Microsoft Word.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your buffet-style consumption. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments, email it to tips at lifehacker.com, or share it on our tips and expert pages.

Remember Your Earbuds' Ear Assignment by Looking at the Headset

If you have a set of iPhone earbuds (with a remote), the remote is always on the right. This in common knowledge for most people, and yet it is useful for determining which ear to put your buds in. At night, if you sleep on your side, it can be uncomfortable to have both phones in your ears.

It makes sense then, to lay with your right ear up, allowing you easy access to the built in remote, thereby saving your eyes from the glaring screens of your gadgets. And as you only have one earbud in, it is sensible to go into accessibility settings, and turn on mono audio, so you are not missing the track for the left ear. While you are there, feel free to set a triple press of the home button to toggle white on black, making most apps easier on the eyes at night.

Fix Finicky DSLR Settings By Removing the Lens

Ellie finds a strange fix for her misbehaving Nikon:

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I have a Nikon D90 camera, and while it's fantastic, I'd been having a problem. The autofocus stopped working and no matter what I could do, for months I couldn't get it to work again. I tried turning it off and on again (with multiple different switches that seemingly control the same feature), turning it off, resetting to factory settings, and nothing worked. I stumbled on this old MacRumors thread that recommended disconnecting the lens and putting it back on. What do you know: everything went back to normal after doing so.

So, if you have a camera that isn't behaving, just take the lens off and put it back on. It might be the only thing you need to do!

Perform More Advanced Searches in Microsoft Word

You can unleash a whole extra set of search tools in MS Word similar to regular expressions, but easier. In the Fluent interface, press Replace, then select "More" and put a check at the side of "Use Wildcards" and click "Special." Instead of the boring selection of end marks, paragraph marks and other stuff no one knows what the hell it is, you get things you are probably looking for—like all words which are numbers, all words beginning with an uppercase character (even with an X in third position of you like) and other goodies. 'Til now, these were hidden away from ordinary mortals.

Quickly Exit Android's Recent Apps Interface

Moon discovers a quick little tip for Android 4.0 and above:

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Well here is another one of those Android tips that everyone knows and I just got around to. A light finger swipe on any blank spot near your "open apps" menu looks to be the same as tapping the home button. It's like showing the desktop, I guess, if the home button is just too damn far away.

It's not necessarily quicker than hitting the home button, but it's there as an option if you need it. Could be particularly useful if you break your home button.